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kinda worried....

hey
what can happen to you when you dont take ur medications like you are supposed to. I know the obvious is pain, but what can happen to u internally and in the future...im asking this becasue i have not taken my prescribed medications that my doctors have given me, for like months, but they dont catch me when they do the blood tests...nd when my parents ask if i take my medication i lie and say yes...even though i hate lying....i know i am not helping the lupus go away, but i am just so tired of medication and decided to be my one doctor....but i know what im doing is bad for me, however i dont care in a way....i dont know how to convince myself to take my medications...

It depends greatly upon what type of medications you are (or are not) taking.
You can cause severe internal damage by not taking some medications; You can be at risk for inflammation on some of your internal organs (like your heart and your lungs) which can be fatal; You can be at risk for renal failure which, if unchecked, can be fatal.

Not knowing what medications your were prescribed, I cannot tell you what will happen. But, I can say that in all probability, you are doing yourself great harm by not taking your medications and may cause yourself damage that you may never recover from. Many of these symptoms take time before you feel it or before lab tests find it, and by then, it may require hospitalization to attempt to reverse the damage (which may not happen, depending upon the severity of the damage).

At the risk of being harsh......you are being very foolish right now. I understand not wanting to continually take pills (I take a total of 16 pills every singe day). But, wanting to get healthy and maintaining reasonable health outweighs my frustration at taking 16 pills per day - which only takes me 2-3 minutes to take.
Now, in a 24 hour day...how many hours does it take to take you medications? It only takes minutes. Are you telling me that you can't give up a 3-5 minutes out of 1440 minutes in a day to take medication? 3-5 minutes per day to save your life is a small sacrifice and it is mind boggling to me that you are not willing to give yourself 3-5 minutes so that you can enjoy the other 1435 minutes in your day? or give up 1825 minutes in a year so that you can enjoy the other 523,775 minutes of the year?? That you'd rather risk spending all of your minutes, hours and days in a hospital trying to recover from something that only took 3-5 minutes a day to prevent?
Think About It!!

what made you decide to stop taking your meds? you know its not good for you and the medication can help, so why quit? i know it sucks to feel like a slave to medication, especially when you're so young like us, but modern medicine is such a good tool to use to get us as close as we once were to health. i'm just curious to know what's going through your head and if you personally have suffered any negative consequences as of yet.

I wonder if part of the problem might be that nobody has takin the time to explain the pros and cons of your medication to you so your able to make a good decision for yourself. I suggest you get the names to the medications that your on and research them a little for your self on the internet to get an idea or if your willing to... the best bet would be tell your doctor that your uneasy continuing to take your medications without know more information on their side effects, pros, cons, etc. and ask him to explain them to you and give you some information on them. That way you know whats going into your body and why you need the medications to help you feel better. Don't be scared to ask questions and learn, thats what the doc.'s are there for and never be afraid to voice your opinion on what your feelings about medication are because if your lying about taking them they can't properly compare your blood work, medications, etc. with your symptoms to help you feel better.. it could hurt you in the long run, just be honest.

Re: kinda worried....

Originally Posted by ayshi123

hey
what can happen to you when you dont take ur medications like you are supposed to. I know the obvious is pain, but what can happen to u internally and in the future...im asking this becasue i have not taken my prescribed medications that my doctors have given me, for like months, but they dont catch me when they do the blood tests...nd when my parents ask if i take my medication i lie and say yes...even though i hate lying....i know i am not helping the lupus go away, but i am just so tired of medication and decided to be my one doctor....but i know what im doing is bad for me, however i dont care in a way....i dont know how to convince myself to take my medications...

Everything you said is exactly what i did and what happend to me. All my blood tests have came back good too.I know just how you feel, i dont want to take my medication anymore. My doctor told me i could go into relapse. Uhm, i guess it affects each person differently. I started taking my medication again, you should too. It might now affect you now but it might in the future.

i know exactly what your going threw. about this time last year i stopped taking my meds as well. i thought id do fine because id had barely any symptoms for a while. by the time i was able to see a new doctor when i started having symptoms again(my old doctor refused to try any alternatives to methotrexate and prednisone) the lupus had gotten out of hand. now im taking my medicine diligently however im still in the same flare. it just took a little real life experience to make me realize how important meds were to keeping me healthy. hopefully you can learn from my mistakes but if not make sure your completely honest with your doctor so they can maybe give you some meds you would be happy to take daily. =) good luck

That's a very bad idea to not take your prescribed medications. Your doctor prescribed the meds because he had a good reason to do so. By not taking them, you have the potential of inviting a whole array of problems. And not taking medications like you are supposed to will most likely catch up with you in the long run. Since no one has found out yet that you are not taking any of your meds, somebody will find out sooner or later, it's just how things work out.

Why don't you want to take the meds? Yes, you will have more pain than not being on meds most likely, so what's worth more to you than having no pain? I know being our age, we don't really want to have to take medication, and we don't want to have to deal with potential side effects, and we just want to be normal. I sure am not too crazy about taking meds everyday, but I know it helps me and makes me feel normal or close to it. Taking medication has become part of my normal routine, it would seem odd to me now to not take any meds. Also, if you are worried about the side effects, not everyone experiences side effects. I was hesitant about taking some of the meds because of the reported side effects, such as weight gain, and I have never had any bad side effects, no weight gain, no acne, none of that.

I do think it's a bit silly to decide to be your own doctor. How can your doctors and family help you if you don't take the initiative to help yourself? If you know what you are doing is bad for you, then why are you doing it?

I might be going out on a limb here, but maybe you are depressed? Most of us has dealt with depression in one way or another with this disease. Especially being a teenager, it can bring you down knowing you have a disease that none of your friends have to deal with and knowing that you aren't exactly like everyone else. You might just have a feeling of worthlessness, and you probably see it pointless of even taking medication. I would maybe try to think if you might be depressed. Talk to your parents about it, maybe go see a therapist to get your feelings sorted out and hopefully you can feel better about this if that's the case. It's worth a try.

In the meantime, though, just try taking your medications. What's the worse that could happen? I would also maybe consider telling your parents that you haven't been taking your meds.

Tell your doctor that you have abstained from taking your medications. Tell him/her your concerns and worries, and your doctor will have the answers and possibly even alternative treatments to counteract your concerns. It's worth it to feel better!

Just try to find the positives in this disease. Surely it has made you stronger. I know that most people with chronic illnesses have more appreciation for life and for the little things out there. We typically have more determination than others.

i used to be a slave to medications but because i was dilagent in taking them i was eventually able to taper off taking as many. It may be miserable now but think of the possibility of the future of not being a slave to them!

I know how hard it can be to be a teenager with a disease like lupus. I was diagnosed at sixteen. When my lupus hit, it went unchecked and then just upped the ante. I got hit hard. I was on very large doses of prednisone. And a plethora of other medicines for my kidneys/etc. In addition to having gigantic puffy cheeks from the prednisone, I had thinning hair (seriously awful), and no "body" to speak of. No boobs. No butt. And to top it off- I had a CVL on my chest for over a year.

Seventeen and no self-esteem. But guess what? I took my medicine and did what docs said and I got better. Hair grew, muscles in the rear came back, boobs too. :) medicine makes your body healthier. It keeps your immune system in check. I don't know what medicines you're on- but you need to take them. Maintenance is one of the most annoying things about this disease, but it's a lot easier than the potentially fatal things that can happen when you don't take care of yourself.

BE PRO-ACTIVE NOT RE-ACTIVE. It's a lot easier. By a million percent.

I would suggest you talk to your parents, your doctors and anyone who actually cares about you. tell them how you're feeling, tell them what you're scared of. get things off your chest. it's YOUR health ultimately, and you have to be the one responsible.

so umm i once did the same thing & stop taking my meds for like months & yea i had pain here & there but i didnt care as you dont now but let me tell you i paid for it in the end! i end up getting a flare up & it stuck with me for awhile. I dont know your story or how you found out you had lupus but if you went threw as much pain as i did you would take that med cause in the long run staying home sick fro months in a time aint worth it to me